Sometimes something happens and for an odd moment it seems like the world is in sync and that fate is telling you something, revealing its pearls of wisdom…you may only catch a glimpse and it may be fleeting but all the same you can appreciate.
In a place where homes are more often referred to as apartments than houses, where the art of space saving has created its own booming industry, it’s no wonder that one isn’t often a physical house caller in New York City. So when you do find yourself in the privacy of an acquaintance’s home, it’s always something of a exploratory discovery.
Personally, my first gravitation is to the bookshelf, since there is usually at least one, even if it’s a single plank of wood, in a one room studio with a murphy bed and other space saving articles of dual purpose furnishings. In a recent experience, as the resident of said abode stepped into the bathroom I found myself perusing the pages of a book by Sol LeWitt. I’d never heard of him and hadn’t again till recently.
But his drawings did stay with me, I can’t really say why, the boldness, the simplicity…and yet I put it down and never thought about it again, that is until today, when I came across this quote randomly in the header of http://www.boym.com/blog/ I liked it and having a little widget of collected quotes added it and googled his name. When I found the drawings of said book, from said apartment, I wanted to know the full context and this is what I found:
Dear Eva,
It will be almost a month since you wrote to me and you have possibly forgotten your state of mind (I doubt it though). You seem the same as always, and being you, hate every minute of it. Don’t! Learn to say “Fuck You” to the world once in a while. You have every right to. Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping, confusing, itchin, scratching, mumbling, bumbling, grumbling, humbling, stumbling, numbling, rumbling, gambling, tumbling, scumbling, scrambling, hitching, hatching, bitching, moaning, groaning, honing, boning, horse-shitting, hair-splitting, nit-picking, piss-trickling, nose sticking, ass-gouging, eyeball-poking, finger-pointing, alleyway-sneaking, long waiting, small stepping, evil-eyeing, back-scratching, searching, perching, besmirching, grinding, grinding, grinding away at yourself. Stop it and just DO!
From your description, and from what I know of your previous work and you [sic] ability; the work you are doing sounds very good “Drawing-clean-clear but crazy like machines, larger and bolder… real nonsense.” That sounds fine, wonderful – real nonsense. Do more. More nonsensical, more crazy, more machines, more breasts, penises, cunts, whatever – make them abound with nonsense. Try and tickle something inside you, your “weird humor.” You belong in the most secret part of you. Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world. If you fear, make it work for you – draw & paint your fear and anxiety. And stop worrying about big, deep things such as “to decide on a purpose and way of life, a consistant [sic] approach to even some impossible end or even an imagined end” You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO!
I have much confidence in you and even though you are tormenting yourself, the work you do is very good. Try to do some BAD work – the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell – you are not responsible for the world – you are only responsible for your work – so DO IT. And don’t think that your work has to conform to any preconceived form, idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be. But if life would be easier for you if you stopped working – then stop. Don’t punish yourself. However, I think that it is so deeply engrained in you that it would be easier to DO!
Over the course of his career (1928–2007), Sol LeWitt produced more than 1,200 wall drawings. Being a minimalist, he reduced his art to basic shapes and colors and types of lines…”on black walls, all two-part combinations of white arcs from corners and sides, and white straight, not-straight, and broken lines.” Somehow, even this information provided a sort of sage-like comfort for me. The exacting direction simultaneously combined with a purposeful ambiguity. It affords a freedom of exploration without the paralyzing effects of a blank page.
It’s been noted that he too came across a book one day that would influence him in a sort of chance encounter. It was a series of action shots taken sequentially of people and animals – Eadweard Muybridge’s photographs. And it was from this moment that he found a certain clarity. He strove “to recreate art, to start from square one,” focusing on simplicity and the idea.
In his 1967 article in Artforum, he writes, “The ideas need not be complex. Most ideas that are successful are ludicrously simple…No matter what form it may finally have it must begin with an idea. It is the process of conception and realization with which the artist is concerned.”
So in honor of Sol LeWitt and the serendipity of experience…to the simplicity of life moving forward with all it’s wonderful twists and turns – may the new year bring the courage to learn LeWitt’s straightforward, albeit somewhat brash lesson: “Learn to say ‘Fuck You’ to the world once in a while.”
